Californians have a chance to legalize magic mushrooms next year

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/08/31/californians-have-a-chance-to.html

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This is a step in the right direction. All drug use is not automatically abuse. When abuse occurs it should be treated as a medical problem before a criminal problem. The drug war is an expensive blight on American freedom. Portugal has had great success with decriminalization.

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Great, now everybody will being doing it. Oh, I think that would actually be good…

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I think to the average straight laced American they will see mushrooms like if it was a hard drug and that it would be a gateway for other substances. I understand that point of view however mushrooms have a very real potential to be used for good and i’m 100% behind any effort into decriminalizing it so that research can be done into helping people.

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I see it like the ads in Grand Theft Auto V for legalizing Medical Cocaine

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Not the craziest idea, far fetched though. I doubt there’s any desire to make cocaine legal anywhere there is precedent for decriminalizing in a few countries (like Portugal). Possession of it will land a person a fine and rehab, but the instances of ODs has dramatically lowered since it was decriminalized in that country.

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I’d love to see this happen – mushrooms are AOK in my book – but I’d give the likelihood of this happening at about 0%.

Even the Netherlands, which tends to be more progressive than CA, has stepped that back in the wrong direction recently-ish.

Edit: In case it’s not clear, I’m taking of mushrooms. Cocaine should be decriminalized (a should all drugs), but perhaps not legalized…

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I can attest to the long lasting part.

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The whole idea of gateway drugs is crazy to me.
If one is the kind of person who chases a buzz then one is going to chase a buzz.

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I for one would love to see consistency in my mushroom purchases- it’s a big letdown when you get a weak batch. If I was just looking for a body buzz I’d smoke some indica and not plan my whole day around it.
Legalization would help big time with that.

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"Saunders said using mushrooms helped him stopped his reliance on heroin 15 years ago. "

Substituting one addiction for another is not the best possible argument and indeed is why Heroin was developed (By Bayer Labs in Germany).and we all can see how well that turned out.

Mind you, I generally favor decriminalizing drugs in general. Not the government’s responsibility to protect stupid people from their own actions.

Except that’s not what’s happening here. For a variety of reasons mushrooms aren’t really prone to abuse. I personally know quite a few people who’ve been helped immensely by microdose regimes.

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Begin the countdown for out-of-state conservative advocacy groups to fire up their funding machines.

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Sometimes you literally have to take drugs to fit through the gateway.

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Also, consider that legalization =/= access. I haven’t heard of any actual “recreational” marijuana dispensaries opening in San Diego since the vote passed, and it’s practically September.
There are those who are actively trying to obstruct facilitation of the law here. Rumor is there may be access by 2018, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

If anyone knows this to be untrue, I am more than happy to be corrected, and would you mind giving me the address of said recreational dispensary?

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It won’t actually be legal to sell marijuana for recreational purposes in California until January 2018.

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Mushrooms are not addictive. If anything they help treat addiction.

I don’t advocate for anyone with psychological or physical issues to take mushrooms. If someone wants to take it that’s up to them, but i do advocate for research into mushrooms toward developing compounds that can safely help people. As is mushrooms are much safer than most anti-depression/anxiety meds when properly micro-dosed.

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As a longtime sufferer of depression, I am hopeful to be able to microdose and give up overloading with caffeine.

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Fun fact, smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol has a higher correlation with consuming “harder” drugs than does smoking marijuana or taking other psychotropics. When you’re a pot head or some other kind of hippie you really don’t need heroin or coke to get by it seems.

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